


I'll Be There When You Want Me, Someway, Somehow

by LegoTea



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Developing Relationship, Devotion, Drama, Established Relationship, F/M, Hurt Peter Quill, Hurt/Comfort, Lost and Found, Mute Peter Quill, Muteness, Peter Quill Feels, Peter Quill Needs a Hug, Post-Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Protective Gamora (Marvel), Protectiveness, Romance, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-27 23:41:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17776436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LegoTea/pseuds/LegoTea
Summary: “How do we get the spores out of him?” Gamora asked, trying to remain calm.Kraglin winced. “Gotta wait it out.”“For how long?” Drax asked.Kraglin looked down at Peter, who was still trembling on the bed, and he said, “I don’t know.”(While the Guardians search for the Milano on Berhert, Peter loses his voice.)





	I'll Be There When You Want Me, Someway, Somehow

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

“Well, that was a waste of time,” Rocket groaned through Gamora’s earpiece as she and Peter neared their space pod, kindly lent to them by Kraglin.

Peter had been the first to volunteer on a scouting mission to find the Milano on Berhert. Its systems were down and Rocket hadn’t been able to track it, so the Guardians had spent the last four night cycles searching blindly for their beloved, crashed ship. Drax suggested just getting a new ship, but Peter had reacted so badly to that, which was why the Guardians were still on this planet.

“At least we tried, Rocket.” Gamora leapt gracefully over a fallen log.

Peter called out from far behind her, “Don’t know what he’s so pissed about. He’s the one who got us into this mess in the first place.”

”Don’t talk about me like I’m not here, Quill!” Rocket shouted into Gamora’s earpiece. She quickly muted Rocket, but unfortunately, could not mute Peter as he squabbled with Rocket.

Gamora looked up and saw a speck in the sky that she knew was the Quadrant. It was too large to land on this dense forest land, so Gamora and Peter decided to split off from the others to cover more ground.

They arrived in one of the smaller pods on the Quadrant, and for an entire day, Gamora had to listen to Peter talking about everything and nothing, as he grew increasingly more desperate to find the ship he had since childhood.

When their search for the day proved fruitless, Gamora suggested they rendezvous with the Quadrant to get some sleep. Peter argued with her for a while, but Gamora had made up her mind, and started back toward the ship, brushing aside the foliage and feeling completely filthy. She knew that Peter loved his ship, and she felt sorry for him, but aside from a few brief moments of them resting together on the Captain’s bed (Peter still couldn’t bring himself to call it Yondu’s), Peter seemed like he was focused more on getting his ship back than spending time with her.

Gamora knew he cared for her, that much was certain. But at the back of her mind, she still couldn’t quite shake the thought that he might grow tired of her, of having the same woman in his bed every night. She wanted to call it their bed, but she still felt like an intruder when she slept (and only slept) with Peter during the long nights after searching for the Milano.

She caught sight of their pod and picked up her pace, then realized Peter was still moving slowly behind her. She turned around to look at him, trying to be patient with him since his physiology wasn’t as attuned to wilderness like she was. Even without her modifications, Gamora knew she would fare much better in the forest much longer than Peter.

Or, at least she thought that was the case, until he broke off from his argument with Rocket stopped in his tracks, and yelled, “Gamora, go to the pod!”

He started to race toward her, and she looked at him in confusion for a few seconds, thinking he was playing a ‘practical joke’ which had become one of Drax’s new favorite pastimes. But when she saw the look of wild fear in Peter’s eyes, she knew that he wasn’t joking around.

She turned and ran, closing the distance between her and the pod, branches whipping at her face as she sprinted the last several yards to the pod.

“Gamora!” she heard Peter cry out behind her, and her stomach sank when she heard the wail of terror in his words, “Don’t say anything! Just get into the pod and take off!”

Absolutely not. No matter how much Peter had irritated her throughout the day, she would never leave him behind.

She whirled around, still almost 500 yards away from the pod, checking if there was a wild animal behind Peter.

There was nothing behind him.

But he had caught up to her, and nearly barreled right into her as he did. He grabbed her shoulders and yelled at her as he nearly dragged her back to the pod, but Gamora noticed something strange was happening: either her hearing was fading, or his voice was fading, like when he would turn down the volume on his Zune.

He kept saying things to her as her feet started moving again, and he and Gamora both raced to the pod together. She noticed something else that was different: the patch of large, bulbous, orange-colored flowers they had landed next to was in full bloom. She swore the buds were closed when they landed.

When they got inside, Peter slammed the top down and took hold of the controls, sweating and shaking as Gamora switched back on her earpiece to get coordinates to fly back to the Quadrant. She had to yell at Rocket to shut up for over a minute.

Then she realized that she could hear him.

So her hearing wasn’t the problem, she realized.

Peter was losing his voice.

And, when Gamora looked at him while the pod was lifting up through the trees, she saw that Peter was unconscious.

 

Gamora laid him gently on Yondu’s bed as he trembled, somehow looking smaller than he usually appeared.

She turned to the others who were gathered around the bed, looking down solemnly at Peter, but before she could say anything, Rocket was quicker.

“What the hell happened down there? I knew I shoulda gone with both of you!”

“Calm down, Rocket,” she said, though she was feeling as panicked as he sounded. She didn’t have the chance to explain what happened to everyone, so she did.

“Orange flowers?” Kraglin asked, then sighed. “Oh, Pete’s gonna be pissed when he wakes up.”

“What do you mean?”

“We ran into those fuckers once, when we was kids,” Kraglin explained. “It was on some other planet, can’t ‘member which. Anyway, Pete wanted to pick some o’ them, he was always runnin’ around lookin’ for things to build some sort of memorial to his mom on the ship. But when they bloom, they got some kinda spore that sets into your voice box, makes it so you can’t talk. It only works when you’re talkin’. Yondu nearly whistled right through him when he saw Pete picking them up. Put him on dish duty for weeks.” Kraglin looked both amused and sad at the memory.

“How do we get the spores out of him?” Gamora asked, trying to remain calm.

Kraglin winced. “Gotta wait it out.”

“For how long?” Drax asked.

Kraglin looked down at Peter, who was still trembling on the bed, and he said, “I don’t know.”

 

When Peter woke up, he wasn’t angry, like Kraglin had predicted. Gamora asked the others to give her and Peter time alone so she could explain the situation. She sat on the other side of the bed as Peter woke up, looking at her hopefully, then he opened his mouth, but even though his lips moved, he couldn’t speak.

Peter gazed at Gamora as she sat next to him, holding his hand, and his mouth kept moving as his eyes looked more panicked, like a trapped animal.

After she explained what happened, she squeezed his hand and said, “Thank you for warning me. If you hadn’t, I would have lost my voice too.” After a moment of silence, Gamora looked down at Peter, and she bit her lip before continuing. “Kraglin says the only thing we can do is wait to see when you’ll get your voice back. In the meantime, we all think it’s best if you just rest. I’m sorry.”

Tears sprang to his eyes and he curled up onto his side, breaking out of her handhold. Gamora had only seen him cry silently a couple times in the past, but he was sobbing onto his pillow. Yet she couldn’t hear his voice. He gasped and panted, but the words wouldn’t come out.

She continued sitting on the bed, thinking that maybe she should stroke his back, but then thought against it.

 

Gamora didn’t realize how quiet things would be without Peter’s voice, until she couldn't hear him.

He couldn’t sing, or joke around, or laugh. He seemed like an empty shell more often than not, mechanically eating when she brought meals to him, and looking like the life was sapping right out of him. Where he had been desperate and energetic in a way that concerned her for the past four days, now he was worrying her in a different way.

At first, she almost relished the quiet. Gamora used to like things that way, but after spending a couple months with the Guardians, with Peter, she quickly found it jarring to be near Peter and not hear him speak. He played his Zune a few times, but then would abruptly shut it off, as if being reminded of songs he couldn’t sing to was too upsetting for him.

Gamora and the others tried making Peter feel like he was still part of the family, even without his voice, his easygoing camaraderie and his jokes and laughter. But during mealtimes, it felt like there was a ghost sitting with them. Though Peter wasn’t physically incapacitated, he was beginning to look smaller, paler. He hunched over his bowl and would barely look up when Groot pushed his bowl to him, offering Peter seconds of Drax and Mantis’s delicious stew. Peter would give Groot a thin smile, and pat him on the head, but push Groot’s small bowl back.

Peter spent the next several days in Yondu’s bedroom, cleaning up and organizing his father’s items as the rest of the group redoubled their efforts to find the ship. Day after day they set out to look for it, keeping far away from any areas with orange flowers.

Peter would usually be waiting in his room for Gamora to return, only for her to shake her head. The good thing about Peter (one of the many good things about him, Gamora realized) was that his expressions and gestures were universally recognizable. She could immediately sense when he was hungry, tired, upset, or when he gained brief glimpses of hope (usually when he saw her return.)

Then, one day, Gamora and the others returned to the ship, frustrated at their lack of progress.

And Gamora went to Peter’s room.

He wasn’t sitting up in bed like usual, waiting for her. When she opened the door, the lights were off and he was curled up on his side, his whole body shaking.

Gamora closed the door behind her immediately, and she rushed to the bed.

Peter had grown used to writing his thoughts on an old, outdated data pad Rocket had fixed. It couldn’t do much except some simple word processing. So he gave Peter the data pad to communicate his more complicated thoughts. At the time, Gamora glared at Rocket to stop him from joking about Peter’s intelligence, but even Rocket was too sympathetic to Peter’s plight to mock him. Rocket knew firsthand how it felt to have something about yourself involuntarily changed.

So did Gamora.

She glanced at the data pad on the night stand, and she started to cry as she looked at his entries.

A lot of it was very free flowing like he was writing everything that came to mind. He missed Yondu, and felt guilty about sleeping in his bed. He felt even guiltier about Yondu giving up his life for Peter. He hated Ego, and wished he’d never come to Earth. “I wish my mom wouldn’t have had me, so that Ego wouldn’t give her cancer,” Peter wrote.

He also wrote about his ship, and how he wished he hadn’t gotten in a fight over flying with Rocket.

Then, Gamora saw a section all about her. “I haven’t felt this way about anyone else before,” he wrote. “It’s different from how I feel about Mom. Gamora is my best friend, and I’m falling for her pretty hard. But I don’t know if she feels the same way about me. I think I get on her nerves a lot, even more now that I can't talk. What if she’s just putting up with me? What if she always was?”

Then, Gamora scrolled down, and the last line made her cry harder.

“What if she leaves me?”

Gamora put the data pad down and shut it off. She moved around the bed, and laid down on it next to Peter.

He was still crying, but frozen, because he was awake the whole time and knew she was reading his thoughts. But he didn’t stop her from reading it.

Gamora moved closer to Peter, and took his hand in hers.

His breath caught in his throat, and he squeezed his eyes shut tighter. As if he was flinching, waiting for Gamora to end things between them before they could even start their journey as a couple.

Gamora reached out with her other hand to start brushing it through Peter’s hair.

He did flinch then, but as she kept touching his hair, she started to sing, quietly:

Listen baby,

Ain’t no mountain high

Ain’t no valley low

Ain’t no river wide enough baby

Gamora hadn’t sang since she was a child. She used to think she would never sing again.

But she did. Badly, she thought, as she couldn’t convey the right pitch that the singers did. Her voice was shaking because she was nervous, but as she continued, she grew a bit more confident.

Peter opened his eyes and stared at her.

Gamora didn’t remember all the words, and ended up humming some of them. But she could see Peter’s face, illuminated by the stars shining through the window, and she saw him start to say the lyrics, mouthing them along with her.

Peter scooted closer to her on the bed, their bed, and Gamora let go of his hand as he wrapped his arms around her. She kept carding her hand through his hair as she sang the rest of the song. Peter gazed at her, his eyes wide and filled with tears, but now there was a light in his lovely green eyes that she hadn’t seen in days.

Gamora pulled the furs over them as Peter drifted off to sleep, and as she began falling asleep in his warm embrace, he snuggled closer to her, resting his head in her hair as he sighed deeply, curling his arms around her in a gentle embrace.

Gamora didn’t feel like a stranger in their bedroom after that.

 

Peter was in remarkably higher spirits after that night.

He woke up early to join Gamora for breakfast, and as they approached the table, holding hands, Rocket rolled his eyes and said, “Gross.” Peter swung his and Gamora’s hands closer to Rocket and he groaned in response. Peter grinned, and Gamora couldn’t help but smile. The atmosphere at breakfast was lighter, better.

Peter wrote on his data pad that he wanted to join the others to search for the ship. Kraglin looked uneasy about that, and Mantis looked worried. Rocket opened his mouth to reject Peter’s plea, but Gamora gave Rocket a pointed look and Rocket said, “Fine. But no splittin’ up this time.”

The Guardians gathered on the main deck as Rocket put Groot on his shoulders and headed to one of the piloting stations. Kraglin was about to sit at another one, but Peter headed over to him, and as he touched the chair, looking at Kraglin hopefully, everyone turned to look at him.

“All right,” Kraglin said, head over to another chair.

They spent hours scouring the terrain. After Gamora began to sense the collective hopefulness that boosted the group during their morning meal, suddenly Peter started to slam his hand on a flat area of his console.

“What? Y’see something?” Rocket asked, looking over at Peter.

“Over there!” Gamora yelled, pointing to the right.

Rocket stood up on his chair as Groot scrambled onto the back of it and yelled out “Got it in sight! That’s our ship, all right.”

The Guardians cheered as Mantis got up from her seat and hugged Drax. Kraglin got up too, patting Peter on the back.

Gamora looked over her shoulder, and even though Peter couldn’t say a word, when he met her eyes across the bridge, she knew exactly what he was thinking.

 

Rocket ran out of the Quadrant’s docking back faster than anyone else, cursing out all the mutinous Ravagers and wildlife that had left the Milano in an even worse state than when it had crash landed. “Gonna take me weeks to fix alla this!” Rocket groaned.

“We’ll help,” Gamora said, her hand in Peter’s as they deboarded the ship. Luckily, there weren’t any orange flowers in this area. She glanced at Peter, and after looking at him for a long moment, she turned back to Rocket, saying, “It’ll save us all time if we bring back the ship as it is, and get it modified.”

Peter gestured with his other hand, and Gamora added. “It’s going to need to be bigger after all, to accommodate for our new crew member.”

She looked over at Mantis, who smiled and clapped in delight.

Peter walked closer to the Milano and reached out his hand to rest it on the side. He nodded, then turned to Gamora.

“It’s going to be all right, Peter,” she said. “I’ll be with you through everything.” Everything else in the background seemed to fade away as she looked up into his eyes, bright and hopeful again, and she gathered up the courage and everything she felt for Peter as she told him for the first time. “I love you.”

He gently lifted her hand up to his, kissing it, then lowered her hand back down.

And he said, in a quiet voice, “I love you too, Gamora.”

She gasped.

He put a finger to his lips, grinning. “I started to get my voice back this morning,” he whispered, as she looked around, realizing that the others were too preoccupied with the crashed ship to notice that Peter was speaking. “I was gonna tell you, but I wanted to wait and see if it was really coming back. No better time than now to test it out, huh?”

Gamora’s eyes filled with tears. She threw her arms around Peter, crying into his shoulder.

“I wouldn’t have left you, even if you couldn’t get it back,” she said.

“I know,” he murmured, stroking her hair. “But I don’t think I realized it until last night, when we were in.... Yondu’s room.”

Gamora pulled away from him to look up into his eyes. “I’m so sorry Peter. About your mother, and Yondu, and.... Everything.”

“I’m sorry too,” he said, tucking her hair behind her ear. “But like you said, it’s gonna be all right. Especially with you here.”

She leaned up to kiss him, not for the first time, but it felt like their first one did. She could hear his heart beating faster, her cheeks grew warm, and he moved his hands to her back as he deepened the kiss.

She was lost in it until Rocket snapped, “Hey, you two love birds gonna help or what?”

Gamora and Peter broke apart, Gamora laughing as Peter ran his hand over the back of his head, his cheeks flushed. She looked at him questioningly, and he shook his head, whispering. “I’ll give ‘em another hour of peace. Then you’ll all be begging me to shut up again.”

“No,” Gamora said, laughing through her tears. “I won’t.”

She took Peter by the hand and they joined the others in salvaging the Milano.


End file.
